Ask Wisconsin leaders to temporarily pause approvals for new large-scale data centers and major energy, water, and utility infrastructure associated with substantial new industrial demand until the state identifies the loads driving that growth, studies cumulative impacts, and establishes stronger protections.

Across Wisconsin, communities are beginning to face a new wave of large-scale development: data centers, gas plants, transmission lines, substations, battery systems, solar fields, and other energy infrastructure projects being proposed to support rapidly increasing electricity demand.

Many of these projects are being reviewed one at a time. But rural communities, farmland, aquifers, wetlands, wildlife corridors, schools, roads, emergency services, and nearby residents do not experience these impacts one at a time.

We experience them cumulatively.

That is why EVA is encouraging Wisconsin residents to ask state leaders for a temporary statewide pause on new large-scale data centers and major infrastructure associated with substantial new industrial demand until Wisconsin completes a comprehensive cumulative-impact analysis and puts appropriate laws, standards, and protections in place.

This is an EVA policy proposal and public letter-writing effort. No statewide moratorium is currently in effect, and this request is not presently associated with an introduced bill or official state proceeding.

Take Action

Begin by contacting your own Wisconsin state senator and Assembly representative. Then send a separate message to the governor.

What We Are Asking For

EVA is asking Wisconsin leaders to establish a temporary statewide pause on governmental project-by-project approvals and construction authorizations for:

• New large-scale data centers;

• Major expansions of existing data-center facilities; and

• Major energy, water, utility, and related infrastructure proposed to enable, accommodate, supply, or respond to substantial new industrial demand.

The pause should remain in place until:

1. A coordinated statewide cumulative-impact analysis is completed.

2. The electricity, water, land, infrastructure, and other resource demands driving proposed projects are transparently identified.

3. Gaps in existing laws, regulatory authority, and state and local review processes are identified.

4. Clear statewide siting and environmental-review standards are established.

5. Public-health, water, farmland, wildlife, community, and Tribal interests are meaningfully protected.

6. Utility costs, public subsidies, stranded-asset risks, and other financial consequences for Wisconsin residents and ratepayers are fully evaluated.

7. Local governments and residents are guaranteed meaningful notice, access to information, and opportunities to participate before decisions are made.

8. Wisconsin law catches up with the scale, speed, and interconnected nature of the development now being proposed.

Wisconsin needs a coordinated plan—not a scattered series of individual project approvals that leave communities to absorb the consequences after decisions have already been made.

(This is an EVA policy proposal and public request. It is not currently an enacted statewide moratorium, an introduced bill, or an official state program.)

Why a Pause Is Needed

Wisconsin should not rush into a new era of industrial-scale energy, water, and data infrastructure without understanding its long-term and cumulative consequences.

Before additional projects are approved, Wisconsin residents deserve clear answers about:

• How much electricity and water proposed large-load developments will require;

• Which industries, customers, or anticipated developments are driving projected demand;

• What new power plants, transmission lines, substations, pipelines, battery systems, water systems, or wastewater facilities may be needed;

• Whether several projects being reviewed separately are part of the same broader development or infrastructure buildout;

• How cumulative water withdrawals may affect groundwater, aquifers, wetlands, rivers, private wells, and municipal systems;

• How cumulative air emissions may affect public health;

• How developments near homes, schools, farms, and rural communities may affect safety and quality of life;

• How farmland, wildlife habitat, wetlands, and conservation areas may be fragmented or lost;

• Who will pay for new generation, transmission, utility, road, water, and emergency-service infrastructure;

• What happens if anticipated large-load customers are delayed, scaled back, relocate, or never materialize; and

• Whether local communities and ratepayers will bear long-term risks while the primary benefits flow elsewhere.

A statewide pause would not mean that Wisconsin is refusing technology, economic development, or responsible energy planning.

It would mean that Wisconsin is choosing responsibility before acceleration.

What projects would the proposed pause cover?

EVA is requesting a temporary pause on state and local approvals, permits, certificates, construction authorizations, public financing agreements, development incentives, and other discretionary governmental actions for:

• New large-scale, hyperscale, or campus-style data centers;

• Major expansions of existing data-center facilities;

• New power plants, transmission lines, substations, pipelines, battery-storage facilities, water systems, wastewater facilities, and other major infrastructure proposed to enable, accommodate, supply, or respond to substantial new electricity, water, or utility demand;

• Projects justified in whole or in part by projected large-load growth, unusually rapid demand growth, regional capacity needs, anticipated industrial development, or the future addition of one or more major energy or water users;

• Infrastructure that would materially increase a region’s capacity to host data centers or other exceptionally resource-intensive facilities, whether or not a specific customer or development has been publicly identified;

• Projects described as serving reliability, economic development, system growth, peak demand, reserve capacity, or general customer demand when major new industrial loads may be contributing to the asserted need; and

• Groups of connected or interdependent projects that may be proposed, permitted, financed, or reviewed separately but collectively function as part of the same regional energy, water, utility, or industrial-development buildout.

Coverage should be determined by a project’s reasonably foreseeable function, capacity, supporting demand forecasts, planning assumptions, financial arrangements, and relationship to other proposed development—not solely by how an applicant characterizes the project or whether a particular data center or industrial customer is named in its application.

The request is not intended to halt routine maintenance, emergency repairs, ordinary residential or small-business utility service, or infrastructure improvements that do not materially expand capacity for major new industrial loads.

The precise scope, definitions, exemptions, evidentiary standards, duration, and legal mechanism would need to be established through legislation or other lawful state action.

What Would Happen During the Pause?

The proposed pause would be a period of active investigation, public participation, and policy development.

During the pause, Wisconsin should:

• Conduct a coordinated statewide cumulative-impact analysis;

• Evaluate projected electricity, water, land, generation, transmission, pipeline, and other infrastructure demands;

• Examine environmental, public-health, agricultural, community, Tribal, and ratepayer impacts;

• Study how multiple proposed developments and infrastructure projects relate to one another;

• Identify gaps in state and local review processes;

• Determine whether existing agencies have adequate authority and resources to evaluate cumulative and connected impacts;

• Hold public hearings and consult affected residents, Tribal governments, local governments, researchers, utilities, farmers, health professionals, environmental organizations, developers, and other stakeholders; and

• Establish protective statewide standards before additional approvals move forward.

The purpose of the pause is not inaction. It is to give Wisconsin time to understand the system being built and establish appropriate protections before decisions become irreversible.

Require Transparency About the Demand Driving New Infrastructure

Before Wisconsin approves additional large-scale infrastructure, utilities, developers, and project applicants should be required to disclose:

• The amount and anticipated timing of the demand the project is intended to serve;

• The customer categories, industries, or developments underlying that demand forecast;

• Whether the forecast includes data centers, artificial-intelligence computing facilities, advanced manufacturing, cryptocurrency operations, or other major industrial loads;

• Whether potential customers have entered service agreements, letters of intent, development agreements, confidentiality agreements, or other commitments;

• The extent to which the proposed project would still be needed without those anticipated loads;

• The planning assumptions and growth forecasts used to establish the project’s need;

• Other generation, transmission, pipeline, substation, water, wastewater, or related projects connected to the same forecast or regional development;

• Public incentives, utility agreements, financing arrangements, or other commitments related to the anticipated development; and

• The financial risks to ratepayers and communities if expected customers are delayed, reduced, relocated, or never built.

Applicants should not be able to avoid cumulative review simply by describing a project as serving generalized reliability, regional growth, or future demand.

Claims of customer confidentiality should not prevent regulators, elected officials, local governments, or the public from understanding the scale, type, and cumulative consequences of the demand being used to justify major infrastructure decisions.

Who Should You Contact?

A statewide pause will require action from Wisconsin’s elected state leaders.

Begin by contacting your own state senator and Assembly representative. Then Contact the governor.

Start Here:

1. Contact Your Wisconsin State Senator and Assembly Representative

Your own state legislators should be your first contacts. They can introduce or co-sponsor legislation, request public hearings, raise the issue with legislative leadership, seek information from state agencies, and authorize or fund a statewide review.

Ask them to:

• Publicly support a temporary statewide pause;

• Introduce, co-sponsor, or support legislation establishing the pause;

• Request public legislative hearings;

• Authorize and fund a coordinated cumulative-impact study;

• Require transparent disclosure of the loads, forecasts, assumptions, agreements, and connected projects being used to justify major infrastructure;

• Establish stronger siting, environmental-review, public-participation, ratepayer, and community-protection standards; and

• Inform you in writing of the actions they are willing to take.

Enter your home address to identify both your state senator and Assembly representative. The Wisconsin Legislature’s official website provides a legislator lookup tool, and its Legislative Hotline can also help residents identify and contact their legislators at 1-800-362-9472.

Contact both offices, even when you believe one legislator may be more receptive than the other. Constituent messages become part of the political record surrounding an issue.

2. Contact the Governor of Wisconsin

Ask the governor to:

• Publicly support a temporary statewide pause;

• Encourage the Legislature to introduce and pass appropriate legislation;

• Convene relevant state agencies and Tribal governments for a coordinated review;

• Direct agencies, within their existing authority, to evaluate cumulative statewide and regional impacts;

• Support transparent disclosure of the large-load forecasts and anticipated development driving infrastructure proposals;

• Include necessary studies, agency resources, and protective measures in legislative and budget proposals; and

• Avoid supporting incentives or policies that accelerate large-scale development before Wisconsin has adequate protections in place.

Written correspondence may also be sent to:

Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 7863
Madison, WI 53707

Phone: 608-266-1212

Additional Ways to Act:

3. Contact the Public Service Commission About Relevant Energy Projects

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin reviews many—but not all—major utility and energy proposals. It does not independently have the authority to enact the entire statewide moratorium EVA is requesting.

Residents can nevertheless urge the Commission, within its lawful authority, to:

• Evaluate the cumulative effects of connected generation, transmission, substation, pipeline, acquisition, and other utility projects;

• Require applicants to disclose the large-load forecasts and planning assumptions underlying proposed facilities;

• Examine effects on electric rates, reliability, water, land use, public health, and affected communities;

• Avoid treating connected infrastructure proposals as isolated projects when they contribute to a broader regional buildout; and

• Recommend statutory or regulatory changes when the Commission’s current authority is insufficient.

Important: A general moratorium message is not a PSC public comment.

When the PSC is reviewing a particular power plant, transmission line, utility acquisition, or other regulated proposal, residents must follow that proceeding’s official instructions and deadlines. A message sent to elected officials asking for statewide policy action does not automatically become part of a PSC case record.

The Commission maintains public case records and participation resources. Comments concerning a particular proposed facility should be submitted through that project’s official docket and within its stated comment period.

4. Contact Legislative Leadership and Relevant Committees

After contacting your own legislators, you may also send your message to legislative leaders and members of committees responsible for utilities, energy, environment, natural resources, agriculture, local government, economic development, and state budgeting.

Committee assignments and leadership can change, so use the Wisconsin Legislature’s current official directories.

When writing to officials outside your district, identify yourself as a Wisconsin resident and explain why the issue has statewide significance. Your own legislators remain the officials most directly responsible for responding to you.

5. Contact Local Officials About a Specific Project

County, municipal, and town officials generally cannot establish a statewide moratorium. They may, however, have authority over particular zoning decisions, development agreements, roads, water and sewer services, emergency planning, local permits, public financing, or other discretionary actions.

When a specific large-scale development or infrastructure project is being considered in your community, ask local officials to:

• Delay discretionary local approvals where legally possible;

• Request complete information about projected energy, water, infrastructure, and emergency-service demands;

• Commission independent environmental, fiscal, infrastructure, water, and emergency-response analyses;

• Avoid signing development or incentive agreements before the public understands the project’s full implications;

• Protect public access to records and meaningful participation; and

• Adopt a formal resolution asking Wisconsin leaders to establish a statewide pause and cumulative-impact review.

Local action can strengthen the statewide request, but it should not replace contacting state decision-makers.